Bullied girl’s family seeks justice as she battles for life in hospital

Olivia Olarte-Ulherr / 26 April 2012

Loujain Hussain, 11, is a very happy girl, always laughing, generous and whose mission in life seems to be making everyone around her smile.

For exactly a week now, the Iranian girl’s family and friends has yet to see her beaming smile once more. She is currently at the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Shaikh Khalifa Medical City, under sedation.

“They (doctors) want to wake her up but are afraid that she may move and start removing the tubes in her head and mouth,” explained her brother, Mahran Hussain.

Loujain underwent a six-hour surgery on Sunday to remove the blood clotted inside her brain, as a result of heavy blows to her head during an attack by four younger boys on Thursday at the Al Maali Private School in Mussafah.

Loujian’s tragic incident had marred the happiness of the graduation of her siblings Mahran (22) and Nada (21) on Monday. Loujain was very excited about attending the ceremony.

“She already chose a dress for the event, but she didn’t make it,” said her mother Maha Abdul Kader sadly. Unable to bear going on stage without his beloved sister, Mahran asked the university staff if he could delay attending the ceremony to next year. “I didn’t want to go for the ceremony, but they said this is my only chance.”

“I asked my parents and they said ‘Loujain would want you to go and that she would be upset if you did not go because of her’,” he said. According to Loujain’s friend, who requested anonymity and who was with her during the incident, the Grade 7 student was standing in the cafeteria with six other girls when someone pushed her. She bumped into another boy and a row ensued.

This was immediately abated with the girls going the other way. The fight occurred twice during recess. But towards the end of the break, the boys came back unprovoked and started pushing, hitting and kicking the girls.

“They kicked me in the stomach and they hit another girl with a bottle but she managed to cover her head and got hit on her hand instead,” she said, adding that the teachers were getting ready to get back to class at that time and had not witnessed the altercation.

She did not see what happened to Loujain but when she was taken back to the classroom, Loujain started crying and said the boys hit her in the neck and stomach. Loujain started vomiting in the class and the teacher asked her to accompany Loujain to the bathroom. She called her older sister, Maram who is in Grade 12. Maram took her to the school clinic and called her mother.

When Hussain Abdulla came to pick up his daughter, the school principal Khadija Al Sayar was wiping her face with wet towel, trying to wake her up.

“When my father tried to lift her up, she fell down,” said Mahran. At home, Loujain complained of pain in the head and neck. She was “hallucinating” and wanted them to leave her alone to sleep but her mother bathed her to wake her up. Mahran called her school friend who told them that Loujain got a beating between her head and neck. “Maram was told by the school nurse that the kids hit her on the stomach but nobody said that they hit her on the head,” Mahran said. At 3pm the same day, they rushed her to SKMC where a scan showed brain haemorrhage.

“The doctor said the blood covered all part of her brain like it was a strong hit, similar to that of an accident or someone thrown from the top of a building,” described Mahran. He added that a friend told him that his sister was hit on the head with a bottle.

According to Loujain’s friends and classmates, this is not the first time that these boys tried to intimidate students at the school.

“They tease us with bad words,” said a friend who does not want to be named. She said that a group of about 20 boys come together, bully and terrorise the kids.

“They come as a group, if one fights, everyone else comes,” she stated. Another friend said some boys in Grade 4, sections B and C are picking on the younger kids as well for no apparent reason.

According to her, the boys started “acting up” only last week. She said they complained to the teachers who spoke to them, but only in vain. On Sunday at the school assembly, Loujain’s friend said that the school principal had announced that the boys involved in the attack will not be returning to the school next school year.

“As a punishment, they are not coming next year,” she affirmed.

Khaleej Times tried contacting the school principal Khadija Al Sayar, but to no avail.

“She does not fight with anybody, she’s peaceful,” Loujain’s mother said. “Where was the supervisor during the break, why didn’t they stop the hitting? Why didn’t the nurse called an ambulance? Why are they (school) running out of responsibility?,” she lamented.

“They did not even call us, my sister was the one who called our mother,” added Mahran.

Hussain Abdulla has filed a complaint against the school on Thursday at the Mussafah Police Station. Investigation is currently underway.For now, all Loujain’s family can do is wait.

For justice to be served and for when she finally gets to open her eyes and smile again.

“She wants to be an engineer, and our agreement is that she will study in the most expensive school in the world, at my expense,” Mahran smiled sadly.